K-9 Cop Shoots Labrador in Front of 2-Year-Old Girl

Officer Steve Gilkerson of Woodville, Ohio, a K-9 cop for a year and a half, shot a chocolate Labrador that approached him during a traffic stop, wounding it. Gilkerson claimed he shot the dog out of fear for his safety and the safety of the people he pulled over. The dog, Moses, belonged to the local business outside of which Gilkerson made the traffic stop. The dog's owner says Moses usually greets customers who pull up right where the cop did. No one has shot at Moses before.

Police in Woodville say they've cleared Gilkerson of wrongdoing via a "review panel," but no witnesses to the shooting, including the two adults in the stopped car, were interviewed yet, and an investigation apparently remains open.

A two-year-old girl was in the car when the cop shot Moses. Although the driver consented to a search after she was stopped, Gilkerson changed his mind about the search after he shot the dog. The Toledo Blade spoke to Cook:

"He told us to leave," she said, saying they stayed awhile because she was too emotional to drive.

Her daughter also witnessed the event, and was talking about the dog being shot, bleeding, and needing to see a doctor.

"She talked about it all day [Monday]," Ms. Cook said. "I just don't want her to be traumatized. She loves animals. She was white and was breathing heavy, like she was scared and didn't know what to do."

Police insist Gilkerson loved animals too, although according to The Blade during a K9 presentation last year he told an audience he's been afraid of dogs he doesn't know his entire life.

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When an unknown but reasonably healthy-looking dog comes up to me in a non-aggressive fashion, I act calm and assertive and, after the dog approaches and seems friendly, lavish it with attention and incoherent rambling, because furry.

My 14 year old lab/golden retriever mix taught my boys to always keep their left up. Not doing so would result in getting a face full of wagging tail.

They also learned that big happy dogs can knock you into the cheap seats without really meaning to. And that that is OK, just pick yourself up and get back to playing.

Fuck these stories are depressing me. My dog is on his last legs. I don’t think he is going to make it much longer. Thinking of all the wonderful things he has done for my family and how it is coming to an end and then read this.

and the pant shitting fear is a completely different issue from the extremely poor judgement of shooting in that situation from a public safety perspective. too afraid to do the job and too stupid to do the job.

You’d think someone afraid of dogs wouldn’t become a K-9 officer, but I think this could be another case of the exact wrong people gravitating to a particular job. I could see someone who is afraid of dogs they don’t know wanting to work with dogs they do know and who will also protect them. Plus the ability to shoot dogs they don’t know with impunity.

Robin Cook of Clyde was driving the vehicle that had been pulled over, and she consented to a search at the request of Officer Gilkerson. She and her boyfriend exited the car, leaving her 2-year-old daughter inside.

She said Moses walked up to the scene with his tail wagging, sniffing the ground and her car tire. She said the officer pulled his weapon and pointed it at Moses, then yelled. She said the dog looked up only after being yelled at.

The officer “just shot and didn’t give the dog a chance to do anything,” Ms. Cook said, estimating it was 6 or 7 seconds from the time the officer pulled his gun to the time he fired.

I have a yappy, 25lb Corgi-mix. She is afraid of, and barks at, everybody except me and my GF. I was walking her around the neighborhood last week and one of the neighborhood children, a girl, 6-8 YO, walks up to me and asks if she can pet my dog. I explain to her that I don’t want her to because my dog is afraid of her and might bite her.

You know what? I’m going to look on the bright side at the one positive thing here.

“The officer, in fear for his safety and the safety of the two subjects who had exited their car, fired one round from his department-issued weapon, striking the dog thereby ending the threat,” police Chief Roy Whitehead said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

He fired his own gun. This is much better than most police shootings, where the gun somehow fires by itself.

What never ceases to amaze me is how brazen these shootings and subsequent clearing of the officers are. They insist on shooting labs, collies, and poodles etc. because officer chickenshit (wearing body armour and likely knife resistant gloves, armed with pepper spray and batons) FEARED for his safety. I’ve regularly noticed they shoot homeless people with barely a mention on the local news, yet almost every time they kill someone’s pet the community gets outraged. fytw doesn’t quite do it for me… ghaaa! mebe shit like this will lead to their powers to be curtailed eventually… mebe.. I’ll be over here holding my breathe

I doubt they honestly fear for their safety in most of these cases. They just say that because the words magically absolve them of all responsibility for their actions.

There was a video a little while back where the cops were trying to enter an apartment under false pretenses, and at one point one of the cops said to the resident that he’d drag the guy outside if he didn’t cooperate. The guy replied that if the cop did that he would fear for his life. The cop backed off.

Basically the guy said “Drag me outside and I will try to kill you” without saying the words.

Y’all know how I am always pointing out that feminists are clinically diagnosed nut cases? I don’t think that is the only class of people who are crazy. Of all the cops I have known, which is a bunch, maybe half a dozen were not certifiable.

My favorite was the officer who, while on patrol, would park his patrol vehicle in the parking lot of the local battered women’s shelter and ogle the girls, occasionally making suggestive remarks. When he was called into the chief’s office to be talked to about his actions by the chief and a city council woman (sister of the woman who runs the battered women’s shelter) he made a pass at the city council woman.